good-bye fiscal cliff and debt ceiling, hello to the efforts of delay or suspend the "s" word, the sequester, that automatic defense and spending cut mechanism that's set to take effect on march 1st. on tuesday president obama went public for the first time in a while with his opening offer on the budget battles ahead, and today he goes behind closed doors with senate democrats in their retreat in annapolis to strategize and preview his state of the union addressch the white house wanted to send two messages with the president's visit to briefing room yesterday. one, that the burden of shutting off the sequester is on congress. >> if congress can't act immediately on a bigger package, they should at least pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms that would delay the economically damaging effects of the sequester for a few more months. >> secondly, the white house wanted to signal how they would like to see the rest of these budget negotiations go in 2013, not with one-on-one deal-making but passed through the regular order in congress. the president said he expects that it's g